I have used almost EVERY formulation of lubricants and even the ones I have designed myself.......

Mainly because I now live in an agricultural area, that has main highways between the towns and dirt roads everywhere else, and dust and crap from all the ploughing and top soil blowing away, just covers the sealed roads with GRIT and DUST.

Since it's a REAL issue to shield the chain or enclose the drive system etc... I have more or less given up the idea of anything less than either a more or less totally enclosed drive or moving to hydraulics, or to use dry lubes - that are self cleaning, in copoius amounts.

My bike is my sole mode of transport so it gets treated like a work vehicle, I am not going to pull the chain off every week and clean it and dry it and oil it and wipe it..... only to repeat the process.

Your damned right I sulk and cry and throw temper tantrums - because I'd really like to keep all the crap off the chain and gears in the first place.

So I have just given up cleaning with scrubbing brushes, solvents, compressed air and more scrubbing and brushing and solvents and relubing and wiping and another 4 or 5 days later the chain and gears are covered in black grinding paste again and then the endless weekly clean and lube and doing that month in, month out, year in and year out......

I can make my chains shiny and clean and internally free of all grit and crap - but a week later, it's all back to square one..... full of free grinding compound.

I have also found that the total loss "constant drip feed" oiling systems that are great on motorbikes are not so good on bicycles, nor are copoius regular drenchings of the chain - to keep the crud flushing off the chain.....

Vegetable oils are great - but they tend to dry into a varnish when the excess lands everywhere else and never gets wiped up.

All the wet lubes attract dirt, all the dry ones - well Tri Flow Sucked, the Lightning lubes are fine - but too expensive in their TINY little premium priced bottles, and I am thinking that the Squirt lubricant may be the way to go.

Apply weekly and it's self cleaning as I go.

That is about all a MODERN chain lube should be.

I'd still rather that the chain drives be fully enclosed and running in an oil bath, or that a directly driven gear box and shaft drive be fitted into the frame.

Hydraulics ARE good, but at this stage - the power losses are too high to accomodate with the mere mortal power source.

I also hate buying the teeny little bottles of "speciality lubes", I'd rather just get one or two, one liter bottles of it, and come back for seconds after 20 years.

If I could give the chain a good weekly weed and feed with a decent douse of the self cleaning lube and be done with it, I'd be happy with that.

The White Lightning "CLEAN" is sold here in 1 liter bottles.... I think I feel a purchase coming on - unless the Squirt people can make me a similar offer, I will get this. it builds up crud around the jockey wheels but applying 5ml or 10ml every week, a quick wipe and doing nothing else, has much appeal.

So we get the leaders we deserve and we elect, we get the companies and the products that we ask for, right? And we have to ask for different things. – Paul Gildingbut really, that's rubbish. We get none of it because the choices are illusory.

RnR Gold - messy application, the stream while turning the cranks, black spots everywhere, I found I could not get it too last, others on the forum have been quite successful with it

EDIT: i meant pro link not tri flopro link - makes the chain feel smooth, quiet and slick. Is not DRY, anytime I touch the chain i have to wash my hands, easy to wipe off before next application (not sticky), last longer than RnR gold, not as long as squirt. I use this on the roadie

Squirt Lube - seems to last the longest, does not seem to work too well in the wet, it is dry, requires an initial degrease which a mate did , I use this on the commuter

Purple Extreme - I have a bottle never tried it cause I have to degrease the chain first, I'll probably use this on the mtb if I ever ride it enough to require the first lube

RnR Gold tells you to wipe it off as much as you can, which I did, but I am starting to wonder if I used it like how I use the other lubes (wipe before application and dont wipe after) it might last longer.

I don't actually purposefully use different lubes for different bikes, its just kinda worked out that way.

Last edited by eeksll on Tue May 01, 2012 12:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

+1 RnR Gold ,but after this thread I might try some others when I am back riding. I agree with an previous posts that gear changes are silky smooth with RnR Gold .The crud does build on the jockeys wheels but I expect that with all lubricants.I guess though I haven't tried any others or had the need to change.

Board Rider

"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going."Source Unknown

I can't find much between them. With PE I still get a noisy chain after only a couple of hundred k's at best. What's more, if I do a full degrease and then PE it will be <100 k before it's rattling away. After the second oil it does go further.... at best 200k. The bike shop told me that I'm too sensitive and that a little bit of noise is normal... maybe I'm being harsh on it.

None the less it's at least as good as everything else I've got. Also, the dry lubes definitely run cleaner I've noticed. That's an advantage in dry dusty weather.

After a lot of experiments and spending too much money on bike specific chain lubes, I have gone back to what I started with, and that is Nulon engine treatment mixed 50/50 with 3-in-one multipurpose household oil.

Yes the chain goes black, but a quick wipe after every second ride and applying the mixture to the chain links once a month, and giving it a good wipe after application is doing a great job.

I've been tring Rimula-X. It's your diesel's preservation, you know! I happened to have several litres of Rimula-X lying around with no earthly use for it. So far, so good. If it pans out, my chain-lube expenditure for the foreseeable future will be zero. Fingers crossed...

I've been tossing up mixing it with metho or something to thin it out, the better to get into the rollers. I expect the metho would evaporarate, leaving oily goodness. Least that seems to be the theory that Rock n Roll Gold (what I previously used) operated on, only the lubricant was in suspension. Oh, and I'm sure the fluid was something far scarier than metho. Anyway, has anyone ever tried this sort of thing?

Oh Wheely wrote:ISo I have just given up cleaning with scrubbing brushes, solvents, compressed air and more scrubbing and brushing and solvents and relubing and wiping and another 4 or 5 days later the chain and gears are covered in black grinding paste again and then the endless weekly clean and lube and doing that month in, month out, year in and year out......

The common opinion on forums seems to be that WD 40 is not a very good chain lube. Others disagree and say it works. After oiling your chain and letting it "soak" for a while make sure you wipe down the outside of the chain with a clean rag to remove any excess oil, it is the oil in the chain that does anything.

Have just got some Morgan Blue - Race Lube, after using Rock n Roll Gold for the past 9months. Have to say other than being a totally different type of lube it definitely seems to make everything run a lot quieter and not sure if its the lube but shifting seems to be smoother as well, this is based on a single 40km ride yesterday though so time will tell for me.

I have used TriFlow, R&R Gold and Finish Line Dry. I bought a can of Finish Line's Cleaner and Lube (blue can) and have used that a couple of times. I really can't tell the difference . They all seem ok to me.

I've changed to Chain-L from Finish Line Wet. If anything, Chain-L is probably a little bit thicker. Interestingly it smells and looks like automotive 80/90 gear oil. This time I've got a new drive train so I'll see how far I get. Chain-L has had some good reviews.

I've tried all the usual products (tri-flow, r&r, finishline, squirt.....) but what I find is good value and performs well is McCulloch chainsaw lube mixed with some castrol marine grease cut with wd40